The Crimson of the Lily Flower
by PrincessDaydream77
Summary: A year to the day of the Battle of Hogwarts and the Wizarding World is in no way downhearted. With both a wedding and child following the horizon, nothing could go wrong. Until Harry's scar begins to hurt once more and he realises that both he and his younger sister have one more battle to fight. Set a year after the end of The Lost Lily Petal.
1. Wedding Panic

The Crimson of the Lily Flower

Summary: A year to the day of the Battle of Hogwarts and the Wizarding World is in no way downhearted. With both a wedding and child following the horizon, nothing could go wrong. Until Harry's scar begins to hurt once more and he realises that both he and his younger sister have one more battle to fight. Set a year after the end of The Lost Lily Petal. 'Hermione G. and Lily Evans P.' because of the way my filing system works.

Disclaimer: As always, I don't own Harry Potter. I just own Lilly-Rose.

Chapter One

The siblings' promise to one another had stood strong for a whole year. Lilly and Ron had decided to wait a while for their wedding, as Lilly was still studying for her N.E.W.T. level exams and Ron was taking his exams to become an Auror at the Ministry of Magic, alongside Harry, whose wedding to Ginny was scheduled for May 2nd, to show that the pair had truly moved on from the horrors of the battle that's anniversary fell on the same day.

Now, Lilly was standing in her best friend's bedroom at her home in the Burrow, dressed in an elegant red chiffon dress, strapless and bejewelled, flowing all the way down to her golden strapped sandals. She was chatting and laughing with an identically dressed Luna and the blushing bride, dressed in a sparkling taffeta dress that her mother had been saving for since Bill's wedding, wanting to give her only daughter a brilliant send-off. That was another reason that Lilly and Ron had postponed their wedding, Lilly making the constant excuse that it was only fair that Harry got married first, as he was the eldest, even though Ron was the elder of the Weasley children. Lilly felt that Ginny and Harry deserved their wedding sooner after all they had been through together.

Finally, Neville came up the stairs to summon them and they decended the staircase, walking slowly in a cluster towards the crimson adorned tent in the garden. The entrance music, a soft tinkling melody, played and Lilly and Luna walked into the room, Lilly holding the hand of the ringbearer, Harry's and her godson, little Teddy Lupin, dressed in a miniature version of Harry and Ron's grey suits, fiddling with his rose buttonhole, wincing a little as Lilly eventually had to disentangle it from his celebratory scarlet locks.

Finally, Ginny walked down the aisle, her left hand gripping a bouquet of red roses, the other resting on her father's arm. The ceremony took place rather quickly, with the soft music still playing in the background, as Harry and Ginny exchanged vows and rings. Finally, they were pronounced husband and wife and exchanged the most important kiss of their lives. Everyone sighed at their obvious love being shown through the kiss, though there was probably not one of the guests that had not seen the two kiss before.

The reception started with a bang, everyone laughing, dancing and socialising with the other guests. Another talking point was introduced as the new member of the Weasley family, newly named Victoire in honour of the battle, was escorted downstairs by her exhausted mother, who only stayed for half an hour as Victoire had only been born in the early hours of that morning.

However, their happiness was shattered as a large cloud of black smoke swooped through the tent, smashing through tables and sending the guests scattering around the edges of the tent, clinging to each other as the smoke emitted a high, hissing voice.

"_I call out to all Witches and Wizards of all heritages, Pure, Half or Mudblood. It is of little consequence to me. The truth of the matter is that you are all on one side of the war and I am the other. You have chosen your sides and I have created mine and the two cannot co-exist. You all know that I show no mercy. You have one week to pledge your allegiance to me, or I shall kill you, one by one, men, women and children, until no-one remains. Use your time wisely, as these days may well be your last._" The echoing voice ceased at last, but the terror of the people only hightened, as the smoke twisted and turned, forming a shape that they all knew so well and feared just as much.

It was a skull, with a snake emerging from it's mouth.

A/N: Short, I know, but still, sequel at last! Please let me know what you think, so I know whether to continue with this or not.


	2. Going to Win

Chapter Two

A/N: Thanks to my magical reviewer, headinclouds123, my best friend.

A terror-strickened silence hung in the air as the black smoke blew away with the spring evening breeze. A few nervous glances were exchanged through the groups of family and friends, no-one seeming to be able to form the words they were all thinking.

Suddenly, the tent exploded into panic. The majority of the guests had scattered, clinging to each other in fear and running over to the hills, where the Apparation zone had been set, due to the wedding being that of two of the major antagonists to the Dark Lord's cause. Fleur and Bill had returned hastily inside with baby Victoire and the remaining Weasley family, bar Ron, who dove for Lilly-Rose as she ran towards her young godson, hoisting him up onto her hip and running inside, closing the door once the two redheads' respective siblings were inside The Burrow.

Bill and Fleur promptly collapsed together on the couch, Victoire cradled between the two of them, while Harry took Teddy from Lilly, eventually managing to sooth the young boy, his hair changing from a darkened and agrivated shade of blue to its usual calm turquoise colour.

"That was him, wasn't it?" asked Ron, his voice making the short question seem almost like an absolute certainty.

"It must have been." Lilly whispered, tears springing slightly to her eyes. Ron, seeing this, strode quickly over to the kitchen cabinet she was leaning on, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her head down to rest on his his. She stiffened for just a second, due to her shock, before melting in his arms, a few tears leaking down across her pale skin and onto his dress jacket and crisp shirt.

"The question is, what do we do now?" asked Molly Weasley, thankful that Arthur was holding her shaking hands.

"What can we do? If 'e is back, 'ow can we survive 'im?" cried Fleur, holding her tiny daughter close to her chest.

"Don't give up, Fleur!" cried Lilly. "We'll get through this, if we stick together."

"Lilly's right." piped up Ginny, leaning gently on Harry's shoulder, while Teddy played with a stray lock of her hair. "We won the war by staying strong and protecting our own. If it is..." The girl paused, her mouth seemingly forming a word that couldn't escape her throat. She took a deep breath and continued. "_Voldemort_, then we'll need to be strong."

"Yeah, I agree." Harry stated strongly, bringing everyone's attention to him. "We have to stick together. Anyway, think about it. We all have each other, who does he have?"

"Exactly. Bellatrix is dead, the Malfoys have defected and the rest of them are in Azkaban. Almost all of us are still here, so if Voldemort comes back, he won't stand a chance."

"Lilly, do you truly believe that that is true?" asked a nervous Fleur, gently rocking Victoire back and forth.

"I can try to, that's all that I can really do. But it works. If you want to believe something, Fleur, you have to let yourself. So, can you do that?" Lilly replied, nodding her head a little as she leant back against the counter, Ron's right hand intertwined with her left. The elder woman looked back at her, clutching the baby closer to her chest.

"Yes, I suppose it all it is the only real thing that will stop 'im." she conceded, kissing her husband quickly on the cheek and smiling towards the youngest Potter child.

"Yeah, it is. And we will stop him. I'm not quite sure how yet, but we are going to fight him and this is one thing I truly do know." The girl paused for a moment, surveying the room, to find most of its occupants nodding their heads in agreement. She paused for just a moment more before delivering the end of her sentence.

"We are going to win."

AN: I know that these chapters are short, but please review, guys, I really want your opinions!


	3. Moving On

Chapter Three

A/N: Thanks to dream-on-sunday for being a brilliant reviewer and friend.

Harry, Ginny, Lilly, Ron and the whole Weasley family had been attempting to return to normal after the wedding. True, they knew that Lord Voldemort could have returned, though they did not know why, but attempting to regain normality was the only thing that they could really do until they knew for sure.

The most dramatic change was Lilly. Deciding that she should take advantage of the assets she had at hand, Lilly had taken her belongings and moved into 13 Spinner's End, the house which her father had bequeathed to her in his will. True, it may have held a few bad memories, but that was part of the reason that Lilly wanted to move there, so that she could try to move on.

It had taken Lilly a few days before she could face the task of changing anything about in the house, still almost feeling as if her father should walk through the door, but two weeks after the attack at Harry and Ginny's wedding, the girl finally decided to clear out some of her father's things.

After clearing every other room in the house, Lilly eventually plucked up the courage to open the door to her father's room, something that she had never done before, though she had lived alone in the house for a fortnight. _'But'_, the girl had reasoned, _'It isn't his house anymore. It's mine.'_ And so she had decided to venture into the unknown and had turned the key in the lock of her father's doorway.

The whole atmosphere of the room was relatively positive, shockingly so for anyone who did not know the man as closely as Lilly did. The airy cream designs of the walls and the delicately aged wooden furniture were a stark contrast to the personality of the sneering professor, but Lilly had not found the atmosphere unexpected, knowing her father's true colours even as little as she did.

As with the rest of the house, one wall was covered almost entirely by shelves of books, old black and brown leather-bound tomes that the man had acquired over the years. '_No,_' Lilly thought. '_Those are a few hundred things that I won't be getting rid of without a lot of consideration._'

Next, Lilly moved to the desk crammed in to the right of the bed, covered in papers and books, no difference found there, but also with a strange raised surface underneath the chaos. Lilly, of course, being the inquizitive girl that she was, begin to sift through the layers of parchment, organising them quickly into piles, so that she could uncover the secret lying underneath. It took a few moments before she found it.

The secret that had lain on the desk was a simple wooden picture frame. It was nothing truly special, barely aged and with perfectly carved flower motifs twisting and turning across the lightly varnished wood, but the image within it caught both Lilly's eye and her heart. The photograph inside the frame was a picture that was almost twenty years old, a picture of Lily and her baby daughter.

Lilly had never seen a picture of her mother before, only a brief glimpse of her in a memory, or in Harry's photo album all those years ago, but seeing an image of both the woman and herself brought tears to Lilly's eyes, especially due to its location. '_So he never forgot me after all._' Lilly sighed in her mind.

However, it was her mother's attentive eye that told Lilly there was something more to the thick picture frame than there appeared to be and so the girl took a deep breath and peeled the back of the frame away from the front. Surely enough, there was an envelope concealed behind the picture. With shaking hands, Lilly took the envelope into her hands, breaking the emerald seal and reading the words imprinted on the page in a black spirally hand.

_My darling Lilly,  
By the time you read this letter, I shall no longer be with you. The coming war will be my last, as I have known for a long time, but I trust that your brother will protect you and that the pair of you will do everything you can to protect each other and the Wizarding World, as your heritage has taught you to do.  
The reason I have written this letter is to give you what you deserve, the things that I have left to give you as good a chance without me in life as I could do. There is a key in the box on my desk that opens one of the trunks kept beneath my bed, while the other box can be opened if you truly consider what your mother has already given to you.  
I always have, do and will love you, my little girl,  
All my love,  
Dad._

Lilly clutched the letter closely to her chest, a single tear trailing down her face and splashing down onto the page, smudging the name of the teardrops source into a slight blur. In truth, the girl felt quite foolish. The letters contents were that of joy, not sadness, yet here she was, crying once again. Brushing the tear away from her face with such a speed that it was almost violent, Lilly dove to the floor, reaching under her father's bed and groping around until her hand hit the hard leather of a trunk. The handle soon appeared below the young woman's hand and she pulled with all her might to free the large container from its hiding place. Slipping the rusted bronze key from the box that her father had instructed her of, Lilly inserted the metal into the keyhole of the trunk, twisting with all the strength she had until it gave, her hands covered in reddening scrapes from her efforts.

The contents of the trunk would be of little interest to any person who wasn't Lilly, but the girl herself found it fascinating. Littered around the bottom of the large trunk, which was enscribed with the letters S.T.S. and set with the Slytherin emblem from her father's Hogwarts days, which didn't surprise Lilly in the least, due to his lack of money, lay pieces of parchment paper. Letters, photographs, portraits, drawings, all unsorted and messy along the bottom of the leather case. They mainly consisted of the both Lilly and her mother, including a piece of parchment with three handprints set on it. '_Me, Mum and Dad._' thought Lilly.

But that was not all, as in the corners sat two boxes. Neither was larger and neither was smaller, they were identical in all but their design, one being black with a green serpent and the other cream with roses flowering around it. However, when Lilly put her key to each of them, she found that it only fit the darker of the two. Nevertheless, she opened the lid of the box which had yielded and found only a large silver key within it. Just about recognising the purpose of the key as one from Gringotts, Lilly turned to the second box. This was the box that had simply refused to open.

Lilly tried each key that she had on her possession, but none would budge the lock even half an inch. '_What else is there? I've tried everything._' the redhead's mind screamed in anguish. Then a sudden thought struck her mind. _Consider what your mother has already given to you_. It was then that Lilly realised that the answer had been staring her in the face.

Unclenching the clasp of the necklace around her neck, Lilly pressed the edge of the intertwined flower pendant into the base of the box, where it magically sank into the leather, releasing the lock on the box, gently lifting the lid of it and a smile creeping onto her face. The box had begun to play _The Sugar Plum Fairy_, Lilly's childhood favourite melody, and evidently Lily's as well, due to the fact that the jewellery box had once belonged to the woman. In front of the mirrored interior of the lid spun a single white lily, glittering and gleaming with the miniscule crystals set in the petals. It was truly beautiful, though seemingly empty, until Lilly, realising that nothing could truly be as it seemed with the riddle that had unfolded in the last dozen minutes, gently prised open the inner base of the box, revealing a golden key. It was far too small to be a Gringotts key, though it had a small note by the side of it, written in a sloping hand.

_My darling Lilly,  
173 Limetree Court, Somerset, England.  
Use it well,  
All my love,  
Mum._

Lilly sat backwards beside her father's bed. It seemed she would move on once more after all.

A/N: Please review, I really love to hear your opinions and they inspire me to write.


	4. Not Moving Backwards

Chapter Four

A/N: Thanks to my great reviewer, dream-on-sunday. This is for you, friend.

For the second time in as many weeks, Lilly unpacked the final box within her new home. At first, she had not wanted to leave once again, but she had now realised that she was glad she had done. Spinner's End held too many memories within its walls, far more bad than good. Now she had somewhere new, to start again once more.

The Somerset house which she now called her home was beautiful. There were no negative words to describe it, not a single one. Two bedrooms, a sea view and even a balcony, which Lilly sat on every night, watching the sunset, more often than not resting with her head on Ron's shoulder. It was truly perfect.

Lilly spent as much time admiring the house as she did rereading the note that came with it. Lilly could not read her mother's swooping script enough times over, nor could she read her father's spider like scrawl too many times. She had memorised both types of writing to the point of being able to write them herself, and still she did not tire of them. She did not know if Harry felt the same about letters from their mother and from James, but she could assume that he did.

That particular evening, at sunset, Lilly was reading through the latest edition of the Evening Prophet, when she came across something truly shocking. A Muggle pair had been killed at Heathrow Airport. It was one of the most open places Voldemort could have attacked and did so. Still unable to make herself believe it, the girl looked down at the paper and read the article for the third time.

_MURDER AT HEATHROW CAUSES PANIC IN MUGGLE AND WIZARDING WORLDS  
A terrible crime was committed at the Muggle Heathrow Airport in the early hours of this morning. A Muggle couple, as yet unidentified, were murdered on the flight deck of the facility by a strange man in a black cloak. Unfortunately, no eyewitnesses managed to see the man's face, but there are many rumours flying around that the murderer was none other than You-Know-Who himself.__  
__No one present can actually give forth evidence to prove this speculation, but all Muggle memories of the event have been taken to the Ministry for examination.  
"There is no need for everyone to be so terrified over what could be a hoax." said Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, when we caught up with him at his office this morning. "The Ministry is doing everything we can to get to the bottom of this, but until then, I think that everyone should just calm down."  
The Ministry are also working to identify the couple, using Ministry records to do with Muggle-Born witches and wizards, as upon testing, traces of magical energy were found in their DNA. We'll keep you up to date when we hear more about this disaster in the Muggle World._

Lilly looked up from the article in shock. An innocent Muggle couple, just murdered out of the blue, by a man who was supposed to be dead. In a way, though, Lilly was glad that she had seen the article. Given that they were questioning whether it could be You-Know-Who when he had died in the Battle of Hogwarts meant that everyone from the wedding had kept silent about the voice. That was good, at least.

Yet still for some reason, this news really troubled her. It was terrible, of course it was, but Lilly had been hearing bad news through the Daily Prophet for years on end. Why would this be different? Telling herself the same thing over and over, Lilly tried to push the incident to the back of her mind, but try as she might, she just couldn't do it.

Knowing that trying to sleep was futile, Lilly did the only other thing she could think to do. She went straight to the fireplace in the living room, threw a handful of Floo powder into the grate and disappeared in a puff of smoke and emerald flame.

She emerged in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic, brushing soot from her shirt as she walked in the direction of the lifts. She hit the appropriate button for the department she wanted to visit and was away. Just a few seconds later, she exited the lift and ran in the direction of the Auror Office.

The man at the desk almost jumped out of his skin as the young redhead hurtled through the door of his office.

"Lilly! What are you doing here?!" the man exclaimed, running his hand through his messy black hair as his sister stood panting in the doorway.

"I can't cope with this anymore, Harry. I need to know who that Muggle couple are. Please help me, please." A single tear made its way down Lilly's face as she confessed this to her brother.

"Lil… I know who they were."

"You do?" she questioned, her eyes moistening a little as she looked up at him.

"Lilly… you really don't want to hear this." Harry was almost pleading with his sister, but she would not listen.

"Harry, please. I need to know." Lilly was now begging in turn, another tear breaching the dam, then another. It was that sight that caused Harry to reluctantly agree.

"They were from Britain, originally. They seemed to have emigrated, because they'd only newly been there. Anyway, they were on their way back here and they just… were unlucky." Harry took a deep breath, preparing himself for the effect the revelation would have on his younger sister. "Except they weren't just unlucky. If it was Voldemort, and I think we both know that it was, he targeted them specifically."

"But why them?" Lilly wondered aloud.

"To get at you. Even you can't move on completely. Not from seventeen years of your life." Lilly looked at Harry in confusion before it hit her. She froze, her lower lip trembling as tears dripped rapidly down her face.

"No. Please no. Please, no!" Lilly sobbed, flailing and crying as Harry pulled her to his chest. She could hardly believe what Harry had said, but it was true. All of it. She could never move on completely, not from them.

As she moved slightly further apart from Harry, her tears dripped down onto the piece of parchment resting on Harry's desk, running the ink of the four words that had changed Lilly's life.

_Reginald and Catherine Granger_.

A/N: Please, please, please review!


	5. Mourning Hermione

Chapter Five

A/N: Thanks to my ever-faithful reviewer/best friend/unofficial beta for everything I write, dream-on-sunday. Come on, guys, don't let my friend do all the work, please review!

As the clock chimed midnight, Lilly still found that she could not sleep. It had been three days now since she had found out about her parents' deaths. '_No, not parents_.' she told herself once again. '_My parents died a long time ago_.'

Yet, still the Grangers' deaths had struck Lilly hard. And the worst was still to come.

The Grangers' funeral was set for that very day, at noon. Only twelve hours away from now, and still Lilly was unsure if she would be able to summon the courage to attend. Ron had, of course, told her that he would accompany her if she wanted, Harry and Ginny as well, but still, she was terrified.

In truth, before this had occurred, Lilly had all but forgotten the Grangers. Once she had cast _Obliviate_ on them, she had pushed the pair out of her mind as she disappeared from theirs. But no matter what she knew now, she couldn't push them from her heart. Maybe they were not her parents, but they had been all she had for eleven years, the only parents she had known before she was sixteen. They had loved her just the same, even though she was not their biological daughter; why could she not do the same for them?

By the time the clock had struck one, Lilly was resolute that she would attend the ceremony, and so had rummaged through her wardrobe for hours on end, trying to find something appropriate, but that would not attract much attention in the Muggle world. She eventually decided on a plain white blouse, a black jumper with a silver clasped cinch belt, a black skirt, tights and plain heeled shoes. It was all she could think of that was appropriate for such an occasion, and it was the best she could do. She supposed that it would have to suffice.

A few hours later, the doorbell of the redhead's Somerset home sounded, chiming sweetly, yet still giving the sound of funeral bells to the young girl. Perhaps it was her mind playing tricks on her, or perhaps the chimes had always been that way, and she had never noticed. Either way, they sounded that way to her.

Turning the key in the lock, Lilly slowly opened the door, not because she was fearful at all, but just because she did not want to expose herself to the world. She wanted to stay inside, and hide away, and not come out for years. Still, the person at the door may very well change that, as once the piece of wood no longer separated the two, Lilly was left face to face with her fiancé.

"Hi, Ron." she greeted quietly, her voice monotonous and unemotional.

"How are you, Lil?" Ron returned immediately, raising his hands up to rest on Lilly's upper arms. At this, she managed to feign a smile that may have been convincing, at least to someone who didn't know her so well.

"I'm fine." she replied, her voice not as unconvincing as it had been previously, yet still not enough to make it believable to Ron.

"Really?" he questioned her, though there was hardly a note of question in his tone, just one of disbelief. It was plain to Lilly that he had no belief in her response at all, and so gave up on her pretences.

"No." she admitted with a sigh, leading Ron into the living room, where she collapsed onto the sofa, a single tear trailing down her cheek as she sat. This did not escape Ron's notice, as when he sat beside her, he immediately wrapped a gentle arm around her, pulling her straight to his chest, where he held her, despite her weak protests that she was still alright.

"You're not, Lil. You're too much like Harry, you know. Sometimes, you just need to admit that you aren't alright." Ron admonished gently, curling a waving lock of the younger Potter's hair around his finger. She sniffled slightly in response to this, before laying her head comfortably down on his chest and beginning to sob. Ron showed little change in attitude, just continued to stroke her hair and whisper sweet nothings into her ear.

It was not until it was time for them to leave that the pair finally split apart, both rising and beginning to make their way to All Hallows Church, in Richmond upon Thames, the lovely area in London where Lilly had grown up with the Grangers. Well, Lilly had never lived there at all, but she still remembered the place. She still loved it like a home.

It felt strange to re-enter the church after all these years, to attend the funeral of two parents who would not remember her if they somehow awoke in their coffins. Everything was just wrong.

Although the Grangers had been a very popular couple, the guests occupying the pews were few and far between, so much so that the arrival of the four to the room doubled the number of guests. The priest standing beside the lectern was the only one to look up when they entered, but looked back away again as Harry closed the door again behind them. Lilly couldn't help but wonder for a moment if he was looking for the young, bushy haired girl that would never arrive, even though, in technicality, she already had.

The sermon was extraordinarily long for two people that had had such short lives compared to many, and it was hour before the guests went their separate ways. Only the four remained, stood in silence beside the twin gravesides, the smell of earth still hanging in the air. Once again, Lilly began to allow the tears to fall.

It had been a couple of years now since she had allowed herself to cry so much, when she had seen Ron kissing Lavender at the Gryffindor victory party after the Quidditch game. That time, she had leant on Harry's shoulder, but standing in the ceremony, Lilly leant down on the shoulder of Ron himself, resuming the position they had been in earlier, as she cried into his chest and he comforted her until she was alright.

She may have lost the parents she had once known, but she was in no way without family. No, she had her family standing around her, and that was all she needed.

Little did she know, there was a man standing behind the oak tree.

A/N: Uh oh! Please review, to find out what happens next to the group.


	6. Easing Pain

Chapter Six

A/N: Thanks, yet again, to dream-on-sunday for reviewing.

Dabbing at her eyes with an already damp square of tissue, Lilly looked up at the gravestone she was sat beside.

After the funeral of her Muggle 'parents', the young redhead had sought comfort in one of the only places she could find it, and so had Disapparated alone from the edge of the churchyard, arriving just a moment later in another churchyard, this time one she had visited by choice. Godric's Hollow.

Lilly had never technically visited the village, except for one occasion with Harry two years previously, but she had not known of her true identity then, or of the meaning the place had to her as well as the Chosen One. But now she knew, it was the only place of refuge her troubled mind could place.

Taking a deep breath, the cold night's air near freezing the lining of her throat, the girl allowed a single tear to fall from her eye. The track it left on her face was one that could easily have been turned to ice, due to the temperature. Still, it was worth it, so long as she got to spend some time with the woman she had hardly got to know.

"I don't know what to do, Mum." Lilly admitted, her tears streaking a path down her face and down onto the headstone, cutting their way through the biting coldness of the frost. "Voldemort's back, Harry's in danger, the Grangers have been killed. He's targeting me, Mum, and I don't know what to do."

For a moment, the young redhead thought that she heard a voice, a presence behind her, but when she turned, preparing with a smile to see the comforting figure, there was no one, and all that remained was silence, bar the whispers of the passing wind. It must have been her mind playing tricks on her. '_That seems to be happening a lot lately._' Lilly thought, shaking her head at how foolish she must have looked to anyone who had seen her actions.

However, the moment she turned back, Lilly heard the sound again, and this time, when she turned, she looked up to see that she was not alone.

Above her, staring unseeingly at the pale marble shrine, was a woman. She had blonde hair, the locks of it curled tightly around each other, and dulled green eyes. Eyes that the redhead recognised full well. She needed no introductions to know who the woman was.

"Aunt Petunia?" she asked, bringing the blonde's attention to the girl, though the look she gave her was one of only confusion.

"Who are you?" Petunia questioned, completely ignorant as to whom Lilly was. Of course, the woman had never met her niece, and was not aware that her sister had had another child at all.

"My name's Lilly. I'm… I'm Lily's daughter."

Petunia gave no response to the revelation, other than the slight opening of her mouth, as she attempted to take this new information in.

"That isn't possible. She's been dead for almost eighteen years." the woman stated, a tear falling down her face at the mention of that fateful Hallowe'en night. She had never quite gotten over her little sister's death, despite the amount of slander she had awarded the redhead in her household over the years.

"I'm seventeen." Lilly responded, looking down at the headstone once again and reaching out a hand to gently touch the silver writing. "I was only three months old when she died."

Petunia gave a small nod, one of acknowledgement rather than one of agreement, but still, at least she was giving a response. '_Well, that's a start.'_ Lilly thought.

"I didn't know she had a daughter." the blonde explained, hoping that that would excuse her disbelieving behaviour. "Though if I think about it, you look much more like her than that toe rag she married."

That comment threw Lilly. She knew that her aunt did not like James one bit, but she absolutely despised her father, and had done even since she was a child, when he had injured her in a case of perhaps not so accidental magic. The woman would surely despise her as well if she knew that he was her father.

"Yes, I suppose I do." the girl replied, nodding her head once in silence. It was only a white lie, after all, and what real harm could that do. Even so, not denying that James was her father had still seemed a very dishonest thing to do, especially as neither of the pair was still alive.

"That's a good thing, then." her aunt told her, albeit with a touch of bitterness to her tone. That was more like the woman Harry had often described to her as a child, one that did not show emotion, and if she did, that she hid it behind bitter attitudes and biting criticisms.

"So, why have you come to Godric's Hollow?" Lilly asked, knowing that she did not really need to ask the reason, as she was certain she already knew, but wanting to take an interest nevertheless.

"The same reason you have. To see my sister." Petunia responded, saying nothing more than what she had to say. "But why did you come here now… child?"

Despite the voice in the back of her mind screaming out that she was not a child in the least, the redhead could understand exactly why the woman had called her such. She shared a name with her mother, after all, and the loss of her sister was still most obviously still a raw subject, even after all these years.

"Because I needed her. The madman that put us in danger before, he's back. And I don't know what to do." When her sentence was completed, Lilly could not help but give out a little sob, as she thought of all the devastation Voldemort had brought to her life.

"You need to do what your heart tells you." the woman told her niece, patting the girl quite awkwardly on the back. "Like your father did."

That caught Lilly's attention, as she looked up at the woman.

"How did you know?" she asked, her confusion evident in her expression.

"It's something in your eyes." the woman replied, and seeing the look of further confusion on her niece's face, the woman elaborated. "I know that you have your mother's eyes, but there is something of your father behind them. Just because I hated the man, that doesn't mean I didn't notice."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." Lilly replied, a smile coming onto her face for the first time. "After all, between the both of them, I've got all the strength I need."

A/N: Quite sweet towards the end, but the drama will start soon, I promise! Please review, and the drama will come quicker.


	7. Confessions of Nightmares

Chapter Seven

A/N: Thank you to , my ever brilliant reviewer.

Lilly had been living for a week, under the influence of the strength she had felt. After her talk with her Aunt Petunia, the young woman was feeling much better.

However, despite her confidence in herself and her brother growing stronger, the threat Voldemort posed to them was doing precisely the same. His presence was becoming further known by the day, to the point where almost all witches and wizards in Britain knew that something was wrong. They knew that the Potters may not have succeeded after all, and somewhere, deep inside her heart, Lilly knew so too.

Voldemort was, and had always been, the object of her darkest nightmares. He was the man who had separated her from her family, the man who had hunted down her brother, the man that had murdered her parents. Voldemort was the man that had ruined her life. And now he had returned, to ruin her life for the third time. '_Is it third time lucky for him, though, or for me?'_ she asked herself. She hoped with all her might that it was the latter.

"Lilly?" asked a voice from the doorway, bringing the girl from her daze, as she turned her head towards the door from where it had faced the window she was sat beside. She could tell immediately that the voice belonged to Ron, even before she caught sight of the man.

"Yes?" she responded, although a little too harshly for her liking, as she was instantly fearful that she had hurt his feelings. The youngest Weasley boy, however, was stronger than he was given credit for by his fiancée, and did not mind the quick reaction. When she spoke again, her tone was a lot softer, and more cautious. "What is it, Ron?"

"Nothing, really. I just wanted to make sure that you were alright." he told her in return, with a slight shrug of his shoulders. Lilly, knowing the man well, did not find this offensive at all, and understood that he only wanted to show her that she was not under any pressure to speak to him. It was a considerate gesture, and one of the reasons that she loved him so much. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." she answered, plastering what she hoped to be a convincing smile onto her face. Obviously, it was not convincing enough, as Ron saw through her action immediately, crossing the room to sit down beside her on the window seat.

"Lil, come on now." the young man spoke, sighing a little in a good natured way. "I've known you for a long time, long enough to know when you're lying."

'_He's got me there, I suppose.'_ the young woman thought, sighing aloud as she did so. Sometimes, she wished that Ron did not know her so well, but afterwards, she was always glad that he did. It made talking about her problems much easier when the man already knew that she had them, and it made it much easier to live life if she didn't keep everything to herself all the time.

"I know you do." she replied to him, after a few awkward seconds of silence. "And I know that you're only trying to help me with this, which I really appreciate. I know that I always try to do everything on my own and it's not the best strategy to have. I'm trying not to do it, and it hasn't worked so far, but I will keep trying. I promise."

"Good." Ron commented, kissing the top of Lilly's head with the most affection he ever showed, which was reserved only for his family and his love. For a moment, the young woman thought she had gotten away with not speaking, as, despite what she had told him, she still did not particularly wish to speak of her problems. That moment was soon to disappear. "Now, what's wrong?"

Lilly sighed immediately, having heard the question, but decided to answer anyway, as she knew that Ron would not leave her alone until she did so. "I'm just a little bit worried." she answered honestly.

"Worried about…?" the elder man questioned.

"I think you know." she responded immediately, still fearful to say the name, even though she had done so freely just a year ago. "Him."

"Voldemort." Ron answered for her, none of her fears at all present when he spoke the name himself. "I know that you're still scared of him. And I don't blame you for it. After all he's done to you, I wouldn't be surprised if he was still in your nightmares. And I know that he is."

'_Another thing that's true.'_ Lilly thought, a single tear reaching the corner of her eye before she wiped it away. Voldemort's murder of both her parents and stepfather, along with his attempted murder of Harry, remained to be haunting her thoughts and dreams, even a full year after the last of these events had occurred.

"I keep dreaming about the night he killed James and my mum. I know that I wasn't there, that I don't know what really happened, but I can see it. Every night when I close my eyes, I can see the flash of green light, I can hear their screams and I can feel it. When Mum dies, I can feel it, like I probably could when I was a baby. I can feel everything that I've lost." she confessed, tears filling her eyes as she spoke. Despite the seventeen years that had passed since, her mother's death was still a raw topic for Lilly to bear, especially in conversation with anyone who was not Harry, the one person who really understood what she was going through.

As the tears fell down her face, streaming down her cheeks like rivers running from the sea, the redhead cried out, laying her head down on Ron's chest.

Though she may have appeared to have been strong, Lilly was falling apart inside, and if she did not overcome her nightmares, she would crumble and fall.

A/N: Please review! Btw, Voldie will appear soon. It's only a matter of time.


	8. The Warning

Chapter Eight

A/N: No reviewers.

That very night, Lilly lay alone in her bed, having told Ron rather forcefully that she was fine to be left on her own. There had been an air of fearfulness surrounding the house, one which she had felt herself quite strongly, but had on principal, she had refused to allow her fiancé to treat like a child. She had had enough of that over the past few months, and did not need any more sympathy from anyone. She was the blood of an Evans and of a Snape, bearing the name of Potter. By connections with her family, the girl must have been born to the bravest Gryffindor of all. However, the moment Ron had left her alone, the courage drained from her blood with the colour in her face. For the first time in quite a while, Lilly truly was scared.

Voldemort was amassing more power. She could feel it in her heart, as Harry had been able to do in the run up to the Battle of Hogwarts. She knew that it was not due to any connection with Voldemort, but due to her connection with Harry. He could feel the change as strongly as she could, and she knew that he was just as fearful. The madman had attempted to kill the both of them, the elder many more times than his sister, so she did not think that anyone could blame them for being a little fearful of the revenge that he may wish to wreak.

'_Why did he always choose us?'_ Lilly asked herself suddenly, realising as she did so that it was an extremely valid question that she had never asked before. '_Of all the children in the world, why did he have to choose Harry? Why did he have to choose us?'_

Of course, as she had been in the Department of Mysteries when the prophecy was revealed, while under the alias of Hermione Granger. She had heard of the three betrayals, the boy born at the end of July… she had known that Voldemort would be defeated in the final battle. She had not known that it would be her wand arm that felled him.

In all of the prophesies that Sybill Trelawney had made in her lifetime, both the false and the truthful, she had never once predicted the future that Lilly would be a tremendous part of, the act of impulsive behaviour that would free the whole of the Wizarding World from a tyrant and a madman. True, she was not as perceptive as she claimed to be, but she did have moments of the sight, which would seem to be only in important moments to come. It seemed that Lilly had slipped through the cracks and into the history books, alongside her brother. She soon discovered that under the microscope was the last place she now wished to be in the current climate of the world.

Harry had also been extremely worried about the state of affairs in Wizarding Britain, but had shown it much less than she had done, as he was used to concealing his emotions a little more than she had been instructed to do in childhood, having lived with the Dursleys so long, where he had been, for the majority of the time, seen and not heard.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door, and she nearly jumped out of her skin when it intercepted the silence of her house. After a long couple of seconds, Lilly rose from her position on the bed, shaking her head a little at the foolish behaviour she had displayed and thanking Merlin that there had been no one there to witness it.

With a sigh, the redhead made her way to the door, intent to discover who was knocking at such an hour of the night that the moon was at its highest in the sky. But when she turned her key in the lock and opened the light blue varnished wood, she received quite a shock.

There was no sign of anyone in the nearby area, which was extremely open. She could see all sides that could have been approached from, and saw that there was no one anywhere near, bar a Muggle walking their dog a few miles below. The only indication of a magical being having been present was the sudden gust of wind and the crackle of magical energy around the area where they had disappeared from. However, as there were anti-Apparition wards all around her house, and that would be the only thing that would set off such a gust that she could think of at such a time, Lilly was left utterly bemused by the situation.

Deciding to let it go, and that she had probably only heard a bump in the night which she had taken to be a knock at the door, the young woman began to retreat back inside of her home. But as she took a final step into the shadows of the porch, something, feeling like a time worn piece of parchment, caught on her toes, making her stumble a little from the lack of light.

As she bent down and grasped it, she found that it was indeed a piece of parchment, one which felt as it had a little wet ink on it, as her fingertips came away a little moistened from the contact they had made with the paper.

Swiftly, she entered the house and slammed the door shut, turning the key by magic as she ascended the steps in a run. She lit her wand quickly as she ran, so as to avoid an accident and, when she had reached her bedroom a moment later, she placed the light over the piece of parchment, so that she could read the message it brought her.

She was so shocked by it that her wand clattered down to the floor, extinguishing itself with a spark.

_Lillianna-Rose Potter,  
Hope is not lost for you. You are the daughter of one of my most trusted followers, who died to further my glory, and so there is a place for you in our new ranks. There is one simple task that you must accomplish; you must bring Harry Potter to me, alive.  
Fail to do so, and you will suffer the same fate as the Muggle scum that raised you.  
You have six months to do this, or you will have failed the task, and shall be left at my mercy._

The letter was not signed by the scribe, but Lilly needed no signature to know who it was from, as the content had told her easily enough. But this was not the most worrying factor of this. It was just as the messages from Voldemort had been before, when Harry had been lured to the Chamber of Secrets.

The letter was written in blood.

A/N: So, Lilly has other options. What will she do? Review, and tell me what you think.


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